Put your sofa in the front row!
Half Moon Theatre On Demand is a streaming service offering unforgettable theatre for young audiences available to watch any time, anywhere.
You can now watch digital productions of some of our recent shows for young people online, recorded live at Half Moon Theatre and professionally filmed and edited.
Our Theatre On Demand service allows you to watch a show for £8 whenever you want, and as many times as you like for 48 hours. Join us for an online performance that puts the best seats in the house into your own home.
Closed captions, British Sign Language (BSL) and Audio Described productions available.
On Demand shows available to watch online
We also have a range of virtual performance packages available to watch at school. Find out more.
On Demand shows
A heartfelt story is about being made to feel naughty, just because the rules don’t make sense.
Boxed In follows the journey of someone who struggles to understand the rules that surround us all. Sometimes stop means go and go means stop. Are you supposed to go this way or that? Sometimes it’s up and sometimes it’s down.
In a world where everyone else seems to understand, it can all get a bit confusing. And when you get it wrong, you’re made to sit out, but you don’t understand why. It seems so unfair.
Boxed In explores the unspoken barriers of attitudes, social etiquette and behaviour that surround us.
Boxed In is largely non-verbal. This makes it accessible to a wide range of people, including d/Deaf, hard of hearing, BSL users and non-English speakers.
Boxed In has closed captioning and is also available with Audio Description.
Explore more about the show
“Boxes, bubble wrap and bananas all add up to a fabulously fun show about rules and how they can be confusing… A wonderfully playful and engaging production that invites a young audience to think about how unspoken rules exist in society, and how behaviours can be different for different people… A cleverly considered piece of work that is full of laughter but also full of interesting questions… A playfully positive way to imagine a world where we’re all included and, with a little effort, everyone’s way of being can be accommodated.”
Three friends embark on an exciting adventure to chase their butterflies away. They cross new seas to uncharted lands, on a journey filled with discovery. The only trouble is they’re all a bit worried about it! During their voyage the group ride the waves, walk high bridges, skirt deep caves and climb to the sky, before reaching dry land braver than ever before.
Created in response to young children’s experience of anxiety, Butterflies is an uplifting tale of friendship, courage and facing your fears, told using innovative staging, breathtaking physicality, the power of play and an original musical score.
This show has limited dialogue. This makes it accessible to a range of people, including d/Deaf, hard of hearing and non-English speakers.
Butterflies has closed captioning and is also available with British Sign Language and Audio Description.
Explore more about the show Watch the Audio Described trailer
“Butterflies shines a light on the challenging circumstances many young people are living in. As someone who has had anxiety for as long as I can remember – certainly from the age of the young audience sat around me, captivated by the show – seeing Butterflies 20 years ago would have been a truly transformative experience, though watching it now is powerful enough.”
When Crusty and his scruffy cat Dollop arrive on Supreme Street, things will never be the same again. After meeting their neighbours, Dr. D and her spotless feline Crinkle, things quickly get out of hand. Soon there’s a full-scale battle of words, tinned beans and cooking pots, fuelled by misunderstandings and the inability to listen to others.
This spoken word poetry show is heartfelt, provocative and full of quirky humour, telling the action-packed story of new friendships and adventures that go cat-astrophically wrong.
Originally commissioned in association with London’s SPINE Library Festival 2021 and Apples and Snakes – England’s leading spoken word poetry organisation.
The Cat-Astrophic Adventures of Dollop and Crinkle has closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences and is also available with British Sign Language.
Explore more about the show
The end of an era is approaching. It’s 1997 and London is about to have its last daytime rave.
British South Asians flock for their last taste of rebellion. Among them are cousins Farhan and Sadiq. Both very different. Both escaping something. Both trying to decide what it means to be British and Pakistani, a Muslim and a man – and they’ve got until 6pm to figure it out.
Featuring a DJ mix merging soundscapes, dance music and spoken word, this exciting show is an exhilarating gig theatre experience.
Daytime Deewane, by Azan Ahmed, won the 2023 Off West End Theatre for Young Audiences Offies Award for Best Writing.
Content Warning: Daytime Deewane includes mild references to self-harm. As part of depicting the experience of British South Asians in the 1990s, at times characters in the play refer to language which is racially offensive.
Daytime Deewane has closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences and is also available with Audio Description.
Explore more about the show Watch the Audio Described trailer Watch a video interview with writer Azan Ahmed Watch a video interview with designer Maariyah Sharjil
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Unmissable! An exceptional, joyously buzzing piece of immersive gig theatre that sensitively articulates complex themes and deep social issues. It’s an exceptional piece of writing from Azan Ahmed. It combines humour, complex discussions and familiar life experiences with historical reference and crucial themes still important today. It’s a remarkably balanced achievement to dig so deep into painful, traumatic subjects, but still have the audience leave brimming with good feeling and energy.”
When Little Titch and her scruffy rucksack arrive at the giant, pink house it is not what she expected – a blanket of thick grey dust covers everything in sight and it is wild and overgrown. Her new home is cold and unwelcoming until she meets Nelly, a flamboyant and loveable old Aunt. Together the pair discover they have more in common than they first thought and that friendship can heal hidden wounds.
Written by acclaimed award-winning children’s author Laura Dockrill, Dust uses exciting puppetry and exquisite poetic language to explore a heartfelt story about love, loss, identity and memory. With haunting music by Hugo White of The Maccabees, this striking and emotional new play is a joyous reminder about just how playful the world can be.
Dust has closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences and is also available with British Sign Language.
Dust won the 2022 Off West End Theatre OnComm Offiette Award for Best Theatre for Children Aged 5-11.
Explore more about the show Interview with Laura Dockrill Interview with Hugo White
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “An utterly enjoyable production… [that] has an inherent beauty and magic…. Dust deals with a number of difficult emotions, but with such a light touch it’s suitable for children of any age, including the adult kind… A captivating, imaginative production that uses tiny particles to make big things possible.”
Abi and her Grandad tell each other Anansi folktales. They play games as they work together in the garden among the beautiful flowers and tasty vegetables. As they plant memories, they share secrets and develop a bond that nothing can break.
Grandad is as smart and mischievous as the wily Anansi legend, a part human, part spider and the subject of many West African and Caribbean folk stories. Can he find a way to tell his granddaughter about his plans to return to Jamaica, his beloved homeland?
Join our intrepid characters as they step into the unexpected in this humorous and heartfelt inter-generational adventure with captivating songs and joyous dancing,
Written by award-winning children’s author Elayne Ogbeta, Grandad Anansi is a co-production from Half Moon and Z-arts: an exciting collaboration by the UK’s leading small-scale young people’s venue and touring company and Manchester’s unique and award-winning venue for children and families.
Grandad Anansi has closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences and is also available with British Sign Language and Audio Description.
Explore more about the show Watch the Audio Described trailer
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Elayne Ogbeta’s warm, pleasing and thoughtful show…manages to pack in more layers than a good strudel…. Storytelling, and its extraordinary power, is at the centre of the piece.”
“A colourful, amazing production”
It’s summer. It’s hot. Like really hot. Like ice pop after melting ice pops hot. Like orange midday sun hot.
Across the divide of a scorched basketball court two girls meet, shoot hoops and discover their shared obsessions make them inseparable friends. But will faith, growing pains and the darker reactions of others get in the way of that long, hot, orange summer?
A decade later the past walks back into view when 18-year-old Amina is confronted by her childhood best friend Tandeki. Can they reignite the spark of friendship by untangling their hurt feelings, or are some heartbreaks just too hard to mend?
Written by Amal Khalidi and Tatenda Naomi Matsvai, Hot Orange follows Amina and Tandeki as they navigate what it takes to sustain love and friendship beyond childhood idealism and the moment you fall in love.
Content warning: Hot Orange includes references to attitudes and language choices expressing negative opinions about same-sex relationships.
Hot Orange has closed captioning .
Explore more about the show Interview with Tatenda Naomi Matsvai Watch a video interview with the show’s writers Watch a video interview with the show’s designer
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Impressive writing debut for young audiences…. Today’s school audience get a closeup masterclass in acting…. A bittersweet gem about the ache to continue a kiss”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Brave, bold, provocative and lyrical…. his smouldering immersive production is an important and exploratory tale of teenage love….. Exquisitely crafted, brave and beautiful…just extraordinary…. This is daring new writing and an enjoyable watch for teens and adults alike. We are enormously lucky to have such quality work in the children’s theatre sector, but I could easily see this production going on to be played at leading-edge venues like the Bush or the Kiln. I am excited to see what heights it and its writers reach in the future.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This is a story of young, queer love that feels real and messy – but retains a sense of optimism that reflects the joy of the girls’ young friendship, and even the urban fairytale spirit of plays such as Beautiful Thing.”
Jackson’s dad is building a new house out of weird and whacky bits and bobs that people have thrown away. The last few years have been hard for young Jackson, living without his mum. Now his dad wants to make a new start, but Jackson isn’t ready to move on. Not until he blows the dust off mum’s favourite old book and conjures up the Story Fairy.
Celebrating books and the joy of reading, The House That Jackson Built features a larger than life pop-up book and thrilling adventures, including a giant who cannot say “fee-fi-fo-fum”, an elephant professor and the Wordy Wordy Birdie.
The House That Jackson Built has closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences and is also available with British Sign Language.
Explore more about the show Interview with Justin Coe
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “An hour of sublime entertainment to children, who will find themselves mesmerised by the magic of storytelling…. Superb children’s theatre.”
Take flight with two new friends as they soar through clouds, fly over distant seas and circle faraway lands. They touch down in mysterious new places and discover oceans to swim in, rocks to clamber over and bridges to cross. But where will they fly to next?
Lift-off on a journey full of music, physicality and zooming paper aeroplanes, where sometimes the skies are not as clear as we first think.
Developed with children who have shared their experiences of losing loved ones, Paper Aeroplane sensitively explores loss and bereavement, the challenges we face when trying to move on, and how we can help one another along the way.
The show was a 2021 Off West End OnComm finalist for Best Show for Children.
Paper Aeroplane has closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences and is also available with British Sign Language.
Explore more about the show Interview with Amber-Rose May
“It’s a really stunning production… It’s incredibly sensitively done and manages to strike the perfect balance between raising the issue of grief without being too triggering or overwhelming.”
Afonso wants to go to his best friend’s birthday party, but where is his invitation – has it been lost in the post, or maybe he wasn’t even invited? When it finally arrives the excitement and nerves become too much to handle. What should he wear? Will they have balloons? Will anyone play with him? And what about the cake?
Heartfelt, provocative and full of quirky humour, Party features striking, colourful designs and exuberant physicality set to the beats of a glorious Fado inspired contemporary soundtrack. Let the warmth of a Portuguese summer take you to a place where difference is something to celebrate.
This show has limited dialogue. This makes it accessible to a range of people, including d/Deaf, hard of hearing and non-English speakers.
Party has closed captioning for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences and is also available with British Sign Language and Audio Description.
Explore more about the show Watch the Audio Described trailer
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Colourful, captivating, and comical, this is totally family-friendly imaginative fun. I defy you not to bop along to the fabulous music.”
Half Moon’s original digital work was made possible by funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, distributed by City Bridge Trust through the London Community Response Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players for making this possible.
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